1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to the fields of computer housing design and bracket design, and specifically, to a bracket for retaining a removable drive assembly in a computer housing, release means for releasing said drive assembly therefrom and a new button means adapted for use in actuating the release mode of said bracket assembly.
2. Art Background:
Certain hard disk drive systems have removable, interchangeable hard disk media, and a substantial number of patents are directed to the construction and operation of such drives. There is, however, a distinct lack of technology directed to removable drives such as disk drives, floppy disk drives and tape drives, where the entire drive, and not just the medium of the hard disk, floppy disk or tape itself, is easily removable from the computer housing and insertable therein.
There are several advantages which may be achieved by such a removable drive system. The most significant advantage is the ability of the drive to be quickly installed and removed from the computer housing to provide for easy access to the drive for repair or replacement. There is no need to disconnect any of the cabling prior to removal, making removal of the drive fast and error-free. Such a removable drive system also provides a means of economizing on expensive drive systems. In this regard, computers lacking expensive drive systems can be provided in several locations, and a single drive can be interchangeably installed in each of the computers depending on need. In a similar setup, one tape drive system may be employed for use in numerous computers as a means of backing up such computers without having to incur the expense of purchasing separate tape drives. Additionally, a removable drive can be removed and secured when not in use to ensure the security of the data on the drive.
Of course, the problems of installation of the drive and the alignment of the heads to the media in the case of floppy drives and some removable hard disk system, which occur in the case of removable media systems would not be present in a system in which the entire drive assembly is removable.